Soul Mage
by Narutoscreed
Summary: Pre Hogwarts divergence. Harry has familial powers and three years with a ghostly member of his family to learn them before he enters Hogwarts. How will these powers shape the boy and his life?
1. Chapter 1

Soul Mage

Chapter 1

Disclaimer:- I don't own any of the characters herein. The plot and many of the magical mechanisms are my own thoughts on magic and how it works, or should work.

/ Begin \

Glancing down once more Harry watched as the small sphere shimmered with an inner light and wondered once again just what it was. He'd had it for as long as he could remember and yet still didn't have a clue. Any attempt to show the Dursley's his little sphere always ended in punishment of some form as they assumed he was trying to make fools out of them. Apparently they couldn't see it, even though it was about four inches across and glowed quite brightly in the darkened space under the stairs. Another thing that confused him was the fact that when he let it go, it would stay wherever he left it be it on a surface or floating in the air, unless he walked away. If he did that then the sphere would follow him like a faithful moon orbiting its planet and it didn't matter if he walked into another room and closed the door before it entered with him, it simply phased through the solid material with no apparent strain. Wood, brick, stone or metal it didn't matter at all to the smooth transit of the green sphere.

It went everywhere he did and no one he met ever mentioned the fact that he had something like it with him. He'd tried to show it to other people thinking the Dursley's just refused to see the 'freakish' object, it was something he wouldn't put past them. Not since they'd taken to beating 'it' out of him, whatever 'it' happened to be. Well that like a lot of things could wait for its answer, he was sure if he waited long enough then they'd slip up and tell him and then he could avoid doing it. That would lessen the punishments he received, he was sure. It never occurred to him to just outright ask them what 'it' was since they'd almost succeeded in ridding him of that pesky curiosity, Harry had possibly had the shortest 'Why?' period in the history of mankind since all the question garnered him would be a clip around the lug-hole.

"….ter! Mr Potter! I've told you before, you will pay attention while in this class! I don't care about whatever deviant plans you're making for when you get out of school but you won't ever amount to much if you don't do well in school. Oh well I'm sure it's just wasted on you anyway, probably grow up to be just as big of a thug as your father," the teacher standing up at the front of the class finished triumphantly, she'd noticed when the boys eyes had focused and she'd managed to add just the right amount of insult to her diatribe. It was common knowledge that the boy would fly off the handle when his dead parents were mentioned in such a way and then she could punish him as he deserved.

Harry for his part was fuming, visibly shaking as he tried to reign in the emotions tearing through his body. Knowing that any outward show of anger would net him more punishment, the problem was he was so angry at the moment. He didn't even know his parents, didn't remember them at all and yet people continually derided them to him. It didn't help his temper at all to know that they'd never met the Potters either, they were simply reacting to stories told by the Dursleys. Harry didn't know it but in that moment he became the number one reason why Mrs Fronais quit teaching. It wasn't that she hated children, she could handle anything the little buggers threw at her but when their eyes started glowing that's when it was time to leave.

Feeling the stress of wanting desperately to punish the woman who'd insulted his father and the knowledge that he'd be punished if he did proved too much for the eight year old boy and he had to release some of the tension. Which was why he thumped both fists down on the table top. The girl to his right squeaked if surprise at the loud bang but she missed the bright flash that was emitted when Harry's skin collided with the laminate desk top. All Harry was focused on was the need to punish the teacher for what she'd said, a second later and just like the rest of the class he was blinking in shock. Mrs Fronais was suddenly sporting the most outrageous dye job any of the children had ever seen. They'd seen blue rinses, pink rinses and just about every other colour you could imagine, even in Little Whinging such things weren't all that rare. They had never seen such a bright metallic blue though, even her eyebrows were blue and her skin had a slight blue tinge where the fine hairs that covered her were also now tinted the same shiny blue.

It didn't take long for the shock to wear off and the children started to snicker at the woman, shortly thereafter in the way of such things the room was filled with uproarious laughter as the children didn't even attempt to reign it in. The flustered teacher didn't have a clue what was wrong with her usually well behaved class. The sound drew attention from the surrounding classes and a minute later another teacher had stuck his head in the class.

"Everything alright Mrs Fron….." Mr Whittaker trailed off as he caught sight of his colleague.

"What? What's everyone laughing at? Not you too Jonathon?" Mr Whittaker wasn't laughing though, he was too busy doing an impression of a landed fish. Each time he thought of something to say his brain would cancel it out just as he opened his mouth and then it would close before the net thought triggered him to want to say something else. Five times he rethought what he wanted to say, Harry counted them, before the man finally managed.

"Emily…Your hair?" The class who had quietened down at the appearance of another teacher were suddenly waiting for their teachers reaction with baited breath.

"What about my hair?" she asked as she raised a self-conscious hand to her hair as if to reassure herself that it was still there.

"It's a, it's a…"

"What?" she asked sharply as he prevaricated once more.

"It's a….blue!" Jonathon Whittaker finally managed to get out.

"Blue? What are you talking about? My hairs auburn, always has been," using the hand that she'd raised before she pulled a strand forward until she could show both him and herself that he was……., "Aaaaaaah! My hair!"

Needless to say the last period of his day was cut short as the teachers tried to figure out what had happened and how. They weren't going to have much chance of that as the incident had registered on the Ministry of Magics sensors and a crack unit of obliviators were dispensed to the scene to contain the evidence of magic. After several hours of constant attempts to turn the womans hair back to normal they finally gave up and used one last obliviation to convince Emily Fronais that she'd actively chosen to have her hair died using a new procedure that had failed in a spectacular manner and permanently dyed her hair that colour. Several reinforcing memories were dispensed amongst her co-workers of her showing off her new hairstyle that morning.

None of that mattered to Harry though, he was currently at home sitting in his cupboard wondering just how the hell his Aunt Petunia had heard about the incident and drawn the conclusion he was responsible. Not that he thought he was, he'd wished briefly that he was; because that would have meant that he could do something like magic. Not that magic actually existed, his relatives had made very sure he understood that when he was younger. As the hours passed and he contemplated the thought that once again he was going to go to bed hungry and thirsty he began to try and think of things to distract himself, and once more figured that the only thing he had that could distract him in the dark was the sphere.

Reaching out he pulled it towards him and began to scan its surface. Not that there was anything new about it, it hadn't changed in all the time he'd had it so why did he think that it would this time? Reaching out with his left hand he changed its position so that he could see what had been hidden by his right hand and froze. There in the surface, where before it had been unblemished was a crack. It was the only way he could describe it, not a physical crack in the shiny surface but a brightly glowing line that looked just like an eggshell that had been hit with a spoon. The new glow was unlike the old one in that it became really bright for a moment and then dulled a little before getting bright again. If it had made sounds he would have known in an instant that it resembled a heart beat but as it was it took him minutes to realize why it felt so familiar.

Seeing the striations on the sphere he couldn't help but run his finger over them and watch in surprise when the surface under his fingertips flaked away revealing a golden inner surface. He spent a good half an hour rubbing the globe like a genies bottle and watching the falling flakes of green as they fell away towards the floor, never actually striking the cot he was kneeling upon. They just faded away as if they never existed. Looking down at the newly uncovered sphere Harry wondered if he'd have to wait another three years for the sphere to shed another layer.

Blinking rapidly in the now bright light he almost missed the shadow that moved under the surface and then with a squeak of shock he lunged into the smallest corner of his cupboard as the sphere started to expand outward at an ever increasing rate. After four seconds he could tell that the final form of whatever it was would be humanoid. The size was moot at this point as it was still growing. After seven seconds it was larger than he was and didn't look like it was going to slow down anytime soon. After a minute it was adult size and the 'body' began to take on details, such as he could tell it would be a woman and that she had long hair. Other than that he was at a loss since she was a uniform grey colour.

It took another minute before she was finished forming and Harry felt something beat in his chest harder than ever before. Something in him recognised this 'person' even if he had no recollection of ever having seen her before. Her eyes were open wide in apparent terror though at what he couldn't begin to guess and it looked like she'd been in the middle of either screaming or saying something. Again with the lack of mobility it was hard to tell, he didn't notice when the eyes flickered for an instant before motion resumed in the rest of the body.

"….Lease not Harry! Take me instead. You don't have to kill him," she pleaded as her eyes regained focus. It looked like she'd been expecting to see something other than what she was seeing, then she looked at Harry for the first time and blinked in shock.

"Who are you?" they both asked at the same time.

"I asked first," again they repeated at the same time. Harry stopped talking as he watched dawning recognition on her face as she understood what was happening to her.

"Oh!...Oh!" she took a good look at the young lad and saw what she'd always believed would be the case. He was the spitting image of James when he was young, then the thought that he was a lot older than her son should be struck her and her joy at his survival of that night warred with her sorrow that he'd grown up without her.

"H-Harry?" she reached out tentatively and tried not to let his flinch get her down as her cold fingers caused goose-bumps to rise on his arms and the nape of his neck.

"Y-yeah?" Harry blinked at the emotion she imbued into such a simple word. Two syllables that said so much more than just his name. There were a wealth of questions buried in that word and he didn't even know how to start. One thing he wasn't expecting was to be caught in a crushing hug. Gone was that cold sensation that had made him shiver mere moment ago but maybe that was more to do with the fact she wasn't touching his bare skin.

"My son!" Lily shouted triumphantly, somehow, against all odds her son had survived that night and so had she. Well in some kind of way she was here and she could touch her son so that was a bonus.

BANG BANG BANG

"Boy! What's all that ruckus? Didn't I tell you to keep quiet tonight after what you did today?"

The ghost of Lily Potter looked from her son to the door before turning to Harry and asking, "Who is that? It doesn't sound like Sirius."

"Sirius?" Harry mouthed back, unwilling to draw his uncles further ire after his freakish behaviour at school today.

Lily decided to forgo answering that question for the moment in lieu of finding out who was making that awful noise outside. Having spent seven years at Hogwarts she'd seen many ghosts so she had a fair idea of what they could and couldn't do. Sticking her head through a door to find out who was banging on it shouldn't be too hard. Unfortunately for her she succeeded the first try and found herself face to almost crotch with her obese brother-in-law. This would be a life altering experience for just about anyone, luckily Lily was already dead so having a heart attack was out of the question, vomiting was also out of the question for the same reason. Needless to say it would have been a disturbing sight when she's last seen him but the intervening years hadn't been any kinder to him and it showed, massively.

Harry was a lot shocked when the person in his 'room' stuck her head through the door and then recoiled back into the room as if she'd been struck. She was also making gagging sounds as if she were going to be sick. He wasn't sure what could do that to a person who could stick their head through a door without hurting themselves or damaging the door but he was pretty sure he didn't want find out anytime soon.

"What's going on in there boy? You'd better not be up to any of that freaky business!" Vernon banged on the door a few more times to make sure that the inhabitant of the cramped space under the stairs understood there'd be dire consequences if the freakishness didn't stop forthwith. Harry just ignored it as he had a hundred times before, it was much safer that way for him. Crouching over the figure of the strange woman he hesitantly patted her on the shoulder trying to comfort her. Something she'd said earlier was nagging at his memory but for the life of him he couldn't place it.

"That was Vernon Dursley wasn't it?"

"Yes, that's my uncle," Harry replied meekly.

"And I suppose Petunia is around somewhere?"

"I think so. She could be out gossiping with the neighbours." It wouldn't be unusual for that to be the case, after all she had joined the neighbourhood watch so that she couldn't be faulted for being a nosy old biddy.

"Then what are you doing here?" yelled out her question.

"Um, I live here," Harry answered quietly. He didn't know what the problem was but for some reason the lady seemed really upset by him being here. In fact she looked as outraged as aunt Petunia when the neighbours did something that she didn't consider normal.

"But, where's your magical guardian?"

"My what?"

"Magical guardian. You know what one of those is?"

"No."

"I have to admit I'm really confused, it's like someone decided not to execute our will at all," she said pensively.

"Um, can I ask who you are? You seem really familiar but I don't know from where."

"You don't know me?" the woman asked looking pole-axed. "Harry, I'm your mother."

"M-m-mum?" he asked as realization hit. That's what she'd said earlier, that he was her son. "But you d-died?"

"I….I'm not sure how this happened Harry. Though I think it might have something to do with our family's gift."

"Gift?"

"That's right. Well not my gift but definitely your fathers. Not only are we wizards and witches but your fathers family were what were called soul mages."

"Hold on….You're saying I'm a wizard?"

"Well of course you are. Are you telling me no ones told you what you are?"

"Aunt Petunia calls me a freak, does that count?"

"No Harry, it doesn't…like I said, I don't know what's going on, but I know who to ask. We need to get outside," she continued as she began patting herself down looking for her wand. "Well that's going to be a problem."

"What?"

"I don't seem to have a wand…That changes things a little." Mentally she berated herself for her lack of thought, she'd been at Hogwarts all those years so she knew that it was a rare ghost that could affect the physical plane let alone the magical. In fact Peeves was the only poltergeist she'd ever seen.

"So we need to get out of the house?"

"That's the first step yes."

"Easy," Harry shrugged as he pulled out a sturdy piece of wire from under his mattress and placed it against the hinge. Pushing the wire as hard as he could the pin slowly slid out of the lower hinge, followed shortly by the upper hinge. The locked door swung slowly open as it now hinged on the small padlock on the door. As he stepped out into the deserted hallway he turned around and placed the door back into its frame. If anyone were to take a casual look at it they'd thing it was still a sturdily locked door that there was no way Harry could escape.

"That was really smart Harry."

Harry just grinned in acknowledgement, "Thanks," he whispered as he slowly sidled down the hallway towards the front door, he didn't know why but it seemed his mother could talk at a normal volume and not have to worry about attracting attention, or at least Vernon hadn't reacted when she'd been yelling earlier. The sun was just starting to sink below the horizon when he opened the door and walked outside. He knew that his relatives wouldn't know he'd even left because they would be in the kitchen at this time of day having dinner.

Closing the front door carefully Harry began trotting down the sidewalk away from his home and Privet drive. Not really sure where they were going but anxious to get there nonetheless. Past Wysteria Crescent and onto Barberry, a quick left onto Oleander and he was on the villages main road into the centre of town or if he went the other way there was a short three miles to the village of Upper Whinging. Lily Potter had no intention of heading into either town, she didn't need anyone to see what she was planning, she'd prefer to have this happen on a hidden laneway a little way out of town.

"Right, we've got to find a deserted patch of road, or a lane somewhere," she said quietly, even though it wasn't possible for her to be overheard by any muggles in the area.

Looking around Harry got his bearings, "Uhm, there's a farm track over that way, bout half a mile away I think."

"It doesn't have to be that hidden Harry, no one should notice anything out of the ordinary. But there are some people who are sensitive to our kind even if they can't access the magic as we can. We really shouldn't risk exposing the magical world."

"So I can't tell anyone I'm a wizard?" Not that he really had any friends he could tell, and definitely no one he'd trust with his secrets. Except…his eyes widened when the realization fully hit that this was his mother, and that for the first time he had someone he could trust implicitly with anything that happened in his life.

"No, there are laws about it. I'll tell you more about them when you're older. For now it's best not to do magic anywhere that I don't approve of."

While they were talking Harry continued to walk down the road, he'd turned onto a gravelled track without remembering arriving but as long as they were now out of sight of the road he didn't suppose it mattered.

"Will this do mom?" he savoured the word as he spoke, it would take a while to get used to but it was something that made him happier than he could ever remember being. The ghostly form quickly looked around and gave a firm nod.

"This will do Harry. Now, this should be interesting for you," she wasn't going to explain how hard this particular activity was for elder witches and wizards, she'd just let him attempt it and if it worked then all was well. If it didn't they'd have to think of another way to get to the place she needed to go. "I want you to close your eyes and relax as much as you can. Just relax and breathe deeply, in, slowly, and out, slower Harry. That's good. Now think about your breath as you breathe in, think about where the air is going. In, slowly, and out again. That's very good Harry. Now try to follow the air with your thoughts, follow it and relax. Relax, and breathe in."

Harry who was following his mothers instructions instinctively could feel his body relaxing further and further as he breathed in and out. He felt like he was almost asleep after a few minutes, yet he was wide awake and wondering what he was supposed to be feeling. He was trying to think of the air and follow it like his mother asked but he could feel something pulling him as he got closer to where the air was going. The closer he got the more inexorable the pull became until his vision cleared, but that wasn't the right word because he knew that his eyes were still closed. He felt that he was in a massive void and before him in the distance was what appeared to be a sun, and yet he knew instinctively that were he to touch it, it would not harm him. In fact he could feel the warmth as an acceptance, like he knew that this was 'him' and the compulsion to touch it was becoming overwhelming.

Without thought, without recognition Harry found himself orbiting the sphere with the feeling that he could just reach out that last little bit and connect with something that was so precious that he'd never choose to let it go. He could hear nothing but the massive beat of his heart as it echoed through him. Though he knew that somewhere his mother was still speaking to him, it wasn't as important as this. Moving the last scant distance he felt a flash of an unnameable emotion as he connected with his magic for the first time, consciously. He'd done it before in the heat of the moment, in fear or anger but this was a matter of choice and now that he knew it was here, and what it was, he would choose to give up breathing before he would forego this feeling. The emotion rushed through his awareness in a wild conflagration of energy, such that he felt that there was nothing that he couldn't do if he just thought about it. The feeling became too intense and he came back to himself standing on a dark country road in the middle of July. Even though the glorious sight of his magical core was gone, he could still feel it pulsing with energy and knew that he would never lose that feeling again.

Lily Potter nee Evans watched her son come out of his meditative trance with a small amount of trepidation. Adults many decades older than Harry tried the small ritual to connect with their magic and either failed or in rare instances they became enamoured of the feeling and never wanted to return to reality. The only reason Lily had allowed him to attempt this was the fact that he didn't have a lot of life experience and she thought that the intense emotions connecting with his magic for the first time might jolt him enough to come back to himself. It looked like she might be right in her theory, or maybe her son was made of stronger stuff than the average wizard. A fact she didn't discount since he'd spent most of his life living with her sister and she remembered some of the arguments and slanging matches they'd had towards the end.

Harry, hadn't missed the expression on the ghosts face or her tenseness, it had been a matter of self-preservation to take note of the moods and actions of the adults around him.

"Mom?" he queried.

"I'm sorry Harry. Your father and I disagreed with many of the customs and attitudes of the magical world. One of the largest of those was the way they taught the children to use their magic," she paused as she could see he wanted to ask a question but she needed to explain this to him first. She'd answer whatever questions he had later.

"Children in magical schools around the world are taught the same way as they are at Hogwarts. Mainly because people believe that Hogwarts is the finest school of magic in the world. My problem with that is the methods of teaching children magical control. They expect children to learn control by casting spells rather than by actually learning what you just did. Imagine drawing a picture. Do you like to draw?" There were so many things she didn't know about her son that it would take years to discover all the things she'd missed. She smiled as Harry nodded that he did, she didn't know that it was dependant on whether his cousin was near enough to steal his art supplies at school. "I want you to imagine drawing a picture, but you have to do it with your eyes closed, and I'm going to move your pencils and paper around so you can't find them."

Harry frowned as he thought about that a little, "That'd be really hard."

"That's right, it would. You can't see what you're doing, or what your doing it with so you don't know if the tree you just drew is brown and green or red and blue. Children are expected to control their magic when they haven't been taught to touch it. They have no 'feel' for it, and so they struggle through the early lessons. There's so much more to magic than just waving your wand around and saying the words correctly, though many wizards believe that that is the extent of learning about magic." If she had her way her son wouldn't be treated the way that 'normal' magical children were treated in school. He would reach his full potential, both James and herself had decided on their course of action where Harry was concerned and they had written out a schedule of what they'd teach him and when. They were already several years behind that schedule but she had a feeling her child was more than up to the job of catching up to where she thought he ought to be, and she'd have three years to prove it.

In the meantime they needed to get started on several other things and for that they needed to reach Diagon alley in a reasonable amount of time.

"Alright Harry, I want you to remember how it felt when you touched your magic, feel it and focus on it. Forget everything else….Feel it flowing through your body, feel it surging down your arms and into your hand. Can you feel it? Good, now let it flow down to your fingers and let it pool like water. Now I want you to raise your hand and push the magic from your fingertips while thinking about needing transport."

Harry could feel the magic flowing through him, a little like treacle, slow and sluggish. That changed when he began to focus on the feeling of his magic and it flowed more like the water that his mother had been talking about. He could feel his heartbeat quicken as the magic flowed faster and faster moving like a whirlpool through his body and then streaming into his arm. The tingling feeling in his fingers increased as he allowed more and more of his magic to flow into them and when he felt that he couldn't contain anymore in his hand he raised it and 'pushed' it out of his hands. There was a dull flash of light that caused him to close his eyes for a moment and then he heard a loud cracking sound and a slight hiss as his eyes opened on the strangest thing he'd ever seen. Uncle Vernon would be having apoplexy around about now if he'd seen the lurid purple triple-decker bus. The hissing sound was the pneumatic doors opening, or at least he assumed they were like the ones on the local council buses.

Inside the bus Harry could see the driver who was a little pudgy around the middle, alongside the conductor who was rail thin and fairly tall.

"Come along Harry, get on, we'd best get to Diagon as quickly as possible," the ghostly apparition ushered him onto the bus while his neck craned this way and that as he tried to catalogue as many of the strange differences between this and what he would consider a normal bus. He'd have to admit that the addition of beds and three piece lounges with living chairs were a much nicer arrangement, though the fireplace complete with roaring log fire was a bit of overkill in his opinion.

"Good evenin' and welcome to the Knight bus, emergency transport for lost and weary wizard folk," the tall thin man said as Harry came up to him. "I'm Stan Shunpike and I'll be your conductor, where can we take you this evening?"

The driver was staring past the small boy who'd just stepped onto the bus at the ghost with a puzzled expression on his face that cleared up after a moment, "Well as I live and breath…you're Lily Potter."

Stan who'd caught on that there was more than one 'person' entering the bus looked completely surprised, "Cor blimey Derrick, you're right. Watchu doin' ere Missus Potter?

THWAP!!

"Ow, whatchu go an do that fer Derrick?"

"Your muvver'd be real proud of you Stan…Asking someone who's mortally challenged why they're ere. I fought you 'ad better manners than that."

Stan, who was rubbing the back of his head stared at his partner while the admonishment sank in, "S'not what I meant, din't mean it like that at all. I was meanin' why ain't you in Godric's 'Ollow. Ghosts doesn't go wanderin around the countryside, they's bound to the place they died…"

"Oh, oh, that makes it so much better don't it, maybe you should let me do all the talking Stan. Before Missus Potter becomes immortally offended and decides to haunt you for the rest of your life," the rotund little man driving the bus turned back to his potential passenger and asked, "So, where are you off to this evenin' Missus Potter?"

Lily was smiling brightly as she regarded the odd pair of wizards. She knew Derrick from school and noted that he hadn't changed all that much. Stan on the other hand didn't look like he'd been out of Hogwarts for very long at all. She was so fascinated by their banter that she nearly missed derricks question.

"Erm, Harry and I are going to Diagon Alley," she ignored the fact that for the first time the pair looked closely at the gawking little boy. Derrick didn't know what to say and Stan looked like he'd just taken a two by four to the back of the head. He acted like it too as he muttered a very faint 'Cor blimey' just before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he keeled over backwards with a loud thud.

Derrick who was made of sterner stuff than his new apprentice turned back to the ghostly witch and asked, "Diagon alley then? That'll be…. Two sickles and five knuts."

Lily gave him a 'look' before blatantly patting herself down, "I'm sorry I don't seem to have my purse with me."

"Oh, right, of course Missus Potter. How silly of me. You can pay the next time you catch us….or you could travel free seeing as how you and your son are such great heroes to the wizarding world an' sacrificed so much…" Derrick trailed off as he withered under the most potent death glare he'd ever had the misfortune to be gifted with.

"Please, take a seat, we'll 'ave you there in just a jiffy," he added hurriedly as he threw the door lever which emitted a low groaning his, "Next stop, Diagon Alley!" he called out as the unusual pair, parent and child, disappeared up the stairs to one of the upper decks.

A plaintive voice called out a moment later, "I say…Excuse me?"

"Can I 'elp you guv'ner?"

"I don't mean to be a bother but I was next," the man who was wearing something a muggle might have worn late in the Victorian period, if they were colour blind and completely fashion challenged. Purple certainly did not go with lime green, but you just couldn't tell an adult wizard that.

"An' now yer not. You might wanna sit down sir."

"I say, how rude! Do you know who I am?"

"Don't bleedin' care do I? You could be the Queens bleedin muvver an' it wouldn't matter. If youse don't want to be the man who's walkin' to 'is destination I'd suggest you take a seat." To punctuate his point he slammed his foot on the accelerator and watched in satisfaction as the man stumbled back into the seat he'd vacated mere moments before. The landscape around the bus seemed to blur for a moment before there was a sharp crack and the bus vanished only to reappear elsewhere several minutes later

End Chapter 1

/ To be continued…? \


	2. Chapter 2

Soul Mage

Chapter 2

Disclaimer, it may come as a surprise to you, but my name is not Joanne, nor is my surname Rowling. You can take this to mean that you aren't reading the original works of Harry Potter. There'd be no point in taking legal action against me since I'm a broke down hack with shallow pockets.

/ Begin \

Harry was having the most exhilarating time of his whole entire life, and with the usual disregard of young boys everywhere he wasn't even thinking about the ramifications of what was going on. It didn't matter that he'd discovered a ghost or that she'd turned out to be his mother. It didn't matter that he'd broken out of his cupboard and the two of them had just finished the most fun ride he'd ever experienced. It wasn't hard for it to be that either since he'd never really gone anywhere or done anything before tonight. For the first time Harry was actually acting like an eight year old and Lily feared he'd give himself whip-lash if he wasn't careful. There was just too much for him to see and he was attempting it all in one go. That all ended when he finally caught sight of the large building in the middle of the alley

Harry looked up at the imposing building with a sense of awe. Not because of the buildings size, he'd seen larger on their way into this strange little area of London. No, it was for the fact that the building looked for all the world like something rather large had leant against one corner and nearly pushed the building over. He wasn't even sure why the building was still standing since it actually looked like a good strong wind could finish the job at any moment.

The young boy would have been surprised at how accurate his errant thought had been, in fact it had lead to the giants being banned from Diagon Alley in the early 1600's when a drunk had decided to use the partially constructed bank as a scratching post. Goblins being the penny pinching bastards they were spent the next hundred years erasing any mention of the giant and convincing the public that the shape of their bank was magically significant as it strengthened their wards. It had also lead to a whole new era in Goblin construction as they attempted to reinforce the impression.

Taking his eyes from what he could only describe as a wonky building he turned to his mother.

"Um, is this the place?"

"That's right Harry. This is Gringotts, the Goblin bank. Now do you remember the phrase I taught you?"

Harry scrunched his face up as he concentrated on the strangely guttural sounding words his mother had taught him over the last hour. "Yes, I think so…but, erm what does it mean?"

"I have no idea, but your father said it was the only way to gain entrance to Gringotts after hours…"

"Couldn't we wait till the bank opens then?" he asked hopefully. He really didn't want to make a fool of himself if he made a mistake.

"No. We can't wait. I need answers to several questions that arise from where you were living and the faster we have those answers the safer you'll be."

"Oh…"

"Now we better get on with this Harry. Knock." The ghost gestured towards the iron black wood of the banks door. Reaching out hesitantly Harry grabbed the door knocker by the only part low enough for him to grab which turned out to be the grotesque caricature of a bearded wizard. A second later he was leaping back with a startled yelp as the face suddenly became animated and attempted to bite him. The only thing that stopped it was the fact that he only just managed to grasp its beard and it couldn't bite that far down.

"Don't worry about that Harry. Just give it a good knock and it'll stop doing that." She winced at the suspicious glare her son gave her, she'd forgotten that the doorknocker would do that. In her defense these were all things she'd been told a long time ago so it really wasn't a surprise, though her memories were becoming clearer as time went on. She'd think about that later when they had more time.

A few moments later there was a muffled thud as the heavy iron knocker met the wood for the first time and Harry was sighing in relief that his mother had been right the door knocker did stop trying to gnaw his fingers. That alone put her one up on any one he'd ever dealt with before. He'd never met an adult that treated him like he had two brain cells to rub together, and certainly none that would give him honest information. He'd learned about electricity the hard way as a child as his guardians had actively encouraged him to play with the power outlets and appliances near water. Harry smirked as he remembered how unhappy they were that it hadn't done what they expected. Instead of dying a horribly tragic death, he'd felt, pardon the pun, energized and had bounced around like a five year old on a sugar rush for hours afterwards. The Dursleys had installed secure power outlets after that as they never wanted to deal with Harry when he was like that again, and Harry, well Harry had liked the feeling and tried it again a few times.

Eighteen thuds and twenty seconds later a hatch above Harry's head snapped open and an amazingly long hooked and twisted nose asked.

"Well what do you want?" the gravelly tone sounded ominously angry. Harry froze for a moment, not in fear but in fascination, he'd never seen a nose quite like it. It was long and hooked, and to be honest looked like it had been broken in eight different places and directions, which it probably had. The fact that there was more hair protruding from it than he had on his head just pushed things up another notch in his boyish estimation. He almost giggled when the nose swept from side to side looking for the wizard who dared knock on The Dread Portal of Gringotts. "Huh, damn wizards wasting my time. Should be able to skin them like we used to…" the voice turned slightly dreamy as it contemplated the good old days just before the nose started to vanish back inside the bank and the hatch swung shut with a loud click.

"Harry, why didn't you…" Lilly asked quietly but stopped when she saw the expression on her sons face, "…oh." She'd forgotten how short he was and thought he must be traumatized by what he'd just seen. She'd stayed back to allow him to make the first move as he should and thus they'd missed their chance to enter the bank, or at least their first chance.

"I'm sorry Harry…" she trailed off as she saw a manic grin cross her sons face and wondered what that was all about.

Harry wasn't listening though, he'd just seen his first Goblin, he hadn't seen much of the creature and it had been a weird angle to view it from but it made him happy. He'd been called a freak and a weirdo so many times during his life with the Dursley's, but for the first time he knew that there were stranger things out there than himself. He wouldn't mind having the chance to rub their noses in just how strange the world actually was. Reaching out he grasped the knocker once more and really let the door have it this time, he could hear the loud thud echo within the building. If he listened very carefully he thought he could hear the feet of the doorman screech to a halt and grind into the flagstones as the creature began its irate return to the doors.

Stepping forward into the light she was just in time to place an ethereal hand on the young boys shoulder as the small peephole was slammed open once more.

"Make yourself known wizard! I swear I shall gut you if you are pranking me!" The nose moved around even more rapidly than before as it tried to capture the importunate wizard who'd disturbed his usually quiet evening guard duties. Wizards were usually smarter than to beard the goblins in their den and would never even think to attempt entrance to Gringotts after normal banking hours. It didn't mean the bank was closed for business, just that the interests of the bank moved elsewhere. It took a second but he finally noticed the ghost standing just within the circle of lights that extended to just outside the pillars that held up the massive marble portico that sheltered Gringotts entranceway.

"What do you want ghostie? Begone before I have the senior curse breaker bought forth to have you exorcised!" He knew it wasn't the ghost that sought entrance to the bank, for one she didn't have the physical ability to use the knocker. Besides the Goblins of Gringotts never dealt with ghosts in the normal course of their business, no, it took an extremely unusual occurrence for the bank to deal directly with the incorporeally deceased. Vampires, and a few extremely well wrought zombies on the other hand…well, the bank didn't like to deal with them either, but if they had money well all kinds of rules could be put aside as mere guidelines if profit was at risk.

Lily didn't answer directly she slowly raised her free hand and pointed downwards drawing the goblins attention towards the diminutive boy standing there as calm as calm could be.

"So!" he hissed, "It was you wizard child. You just stay right there, I have a flensing knife with your name on it," thinking the child would run away he bared his wickedly sharp teeth in a ferocious looking grin. What he wasn't expecting was for the boy to look at him resolutely and then speak.

"Gral'nuk. Ath'tar gek Gibber, del'gen t'ver asser var. Merak, des blenor gak, ng'var! Gal t'ver berik tane deis!" Harry finished the sentence his mother had been teaching him and looked up at her for reassurance. Sighing at the small smile he saw appear on her face he turned back to the goblin and saw a wide eyed expression of shock on the green skinned creatures face. He'd practiced that speech for nearly a half hour until the ghost had given a nod of approval before they headed here. The only thing he wondered was, what he'd just said to the Goblin. Whatever it was the Goblin seemed shocked, and acquiescent as he vanished momentarily and a loud clanking sound could be heard from within.

A rather normal sized door opened in the much larger main doors and Harry got his first good look at a goblin, it was rather large as far as he was concerned. Five feet six inches tall, the green skinned creature wore heavy armour in a dark metal that harry couldn't identify, he knew that he didn't want to get anywhere near some of those spiky or serrated edges. It was designed almost as much as a weapon as protection as many wizards could attest. Goblins liked to get in very close to their enemies, close enough that wizards, who were primarily ranged combatants were more scared of friendly fire than they were of the goblins themselves. The other thing that drew his attention was the rather large war axe the goblin attached to its belt. It looked like it was razor sharp and he couldn't stop from swallowing nervously as he stood there waiting for the goblin to make its next move.

It was at that point that Harry noticed something else about the goblin, aside from a rather daunting nose and dark beady eyes that glittered in the torchlight the creature had ears. And what magnificent ears they were, it looked like it was a lucky thing the guard weighed as much as he did, since if he was much lighter Harry reckoned a good stiff breeze would be a danger. Along the length of the massive ears were large gold hoops interspersed with deep notches cut into the soft flesh as if some of those loops had been forcibly removed. Harry winced at that thought before continuing his ruminations on the possible flight capability of Goblins. Those ears could provide enough lift if the Goblin were a little more aerodynamic in its features. Maybe that was the reason for that really heavy armour, maybe the goblins had experience with flight and didn't like it. Harry really wanted answers to the questions running through his head but a survival instinct he didn't even know he possessed had his mouth firmly clamped shut even if it did twitch suspiciously a few times.

Lily for her part watched her son as he stood stoically in front of the open door to Gringotts. She'd prefer that they be anywhere other than here dealing with Goblins, well that wasn't necessarily true, there were worse places to be, and it certainly wasn't feasible. They needed so many things before they could do anything, the most important of which was information. Things were not as they should have been and she needed to know why and who was responsible before they could plan anything. Harry would need answers to so many questions himself, but until she had the information herself there was no chance for that to happen. She'd watched him on the bus, wanting to tell him so many things, but the trip had been too short for there to be any real chance to have a conversation.

Besides, he'd been thoroughly enthralled by their trip as buildings and vehicles literally leapt out of the purple buses path before leaping back as if nothing had happened. When the vehicles didn't move then the bus would reform and slide between stationary vehicles, or over them. While she'd been alive this had been her least favourite form of transportation. Nausea was the biggest factor of that, now though she didn't have to worry about any of that, not with the decided lack of internal organs and hormones to upset. She also discovered that the upper level was the most stable level of the bus as the vehicle beneath them wove through, around and over traffic, the upper level was most stationary with only the occasional bridge that it needed to 'duck' under.

Her ruminations were disrupted moments later when the Goblin harshly cleared its throat.

"Gral'nuk ehtter vas! Deis, berik t'vor?" the Goblin stated while ushering them inside.

Both Harry and his mother stared blankly at the Goblin before Harry turned to his mother with a quizzical look.

"Don't ask me Harry, your father only taught me the one phrase of Goblin and I never had a chance to learn the language after that. What with the war and everything," she finished sadly.

Harry was even more confused now. War? What war?

Riptooth glanced between the two humans carefully before motioning again. "Are you coming in humans? Or do you want to waste more of my time?"

Harry rushed through the open door and stopped just within, he wasn't sure what he was expecting but it wasn't to see hundreds of Goblins swarming all over the place doing the gods only knew what. They were carrying heavy bags, stacks of paper, running hither and yon and on top of that there was a large amount of yelling going back and forth. It didn't take long for Harry to notice that they all appeared to be smaller than the Goblin on the door was and he could see that he could look any of them in the eye when speaking to them. Other than that they looked remarkably similar except they were wearing finely brocaded doublets in a riot of colours. Turning around to ask the guard where they should go he found that the creature had moved away quietly and left them to fend for themselves.

Lily hadn't ever seen the bank this busy either and she was in the process of closing her mouth and getting her brain back in working order when she remembered how important what she was doing actually was.

"Right. Come this way Harry," she said as she walked, though for a ghost that might be the wrong word, towards the row of counters across the room. It was lucky Harry had quick reflexes because the rushing Goblins made no allowances for the presence of the small child in their midst and if he wasn't watching he was sure they would quite literally have run him over with those heavy looking trolleys they were pushing around. The one Goblin that managed to push one through Lily Potter let out a startled yelp when he physically made contact with the ghost as the chill that went down his spine had been quite unexpected and he'd spent several seconds staring at the ghost in their midst with wide eyes. Until a sharp barking command snapped him out of it anyway and he once more rushed off pushing his burden helter skelter before him.

Harry let out a sigh of relief when he finally made the haven of the service counters, even if it did make him feel uncomfortable to have the tellers well over his head and peering down at him as if he were something odious the cat had dragged into the house. Looking around for a Goblin that might be helpful didn't provide him with any clues for as soon as they realized he didn't know who to see they all turned back to what they had been doing and studiously ignored him. Deciding that he wasn't going to be helped unless he disturbed one of them he walked up to the closest teller and cleared his throat. The Goblin behind the counter bristled but continued to ignore him so Harry cleared his throat even louder before saying.

"Excuse me sir." He gulped a second later as he found himself the recipient of a rather sharp eyed stare from the Goblin that had been using a rather large stamp on a rather large pile of parchment. Whatever those were every single one had a 'rejected' sign on it in bright red flashing ink when it was added to a much smaller pile on the other side of its desk. Even though it made him nervous Harry continued to make eye contact with the teller until the creature nodded slightly as if he'd passed some kind of test.

"State your business human," the creature grated out. Harry now had a fair idea of what a sneer sounded like and knew that he didn't like being on the receiving end of it very much.

"Er," Harry temporized.

"Well? Spit it out, I don't have all day. Time is money don't you know?" the last was almost growled at him.

"Um, I…"

"We're here to see the family account manager," Lily interceded.

"Its name?"

"I don't know," Lily admitted sheepishly. James had done all of their banking when he'd been alive. Not because he didn't believe her capable of doing it but because chauvinism was alive and well in the magical community and the Goblins would have given her a hard time.

The Goblin sighed in resignation, "Your family name," it demanded.

"Po…"

"Not you ghost, the boy. He is the only one with a family name here."

"Hey! That's my mother you're speaking to…"

"Indeed?" the Goblin sneered, "How interesting. Speak your full name boy or leave."

Harry gulped nervously, "Er, Harry Potter."

Looking disdainfully down its nose at him the creature then took a ledger our of a drawer and flipped it open. Looking back up it asked. "Is that your full name boy?"

Harry was flummoxed by the question, to be honest he'd only found out that his name was Harry when he entered school a couple of years ago. Up til that point he'd actually thought his name was freak. It'd taken a little getting used to on his part to actually have a real name and have people use it.

"Er…"

"James," Lily spoke up from beside him.

"Huh?"

"It's your middle name."

"Really?"

"Ah-Hem! So, your name is Harry James Potter?" the Goblin queried. "You will of course be called upon to prove that, and I assure you, you won't like the repercussions of failing our test."

"If that's what my mum tells me then it should be right." Harry didn't know what to make of the Goblins hostile demeanour, but he knew it couldn't just be directed at him since he'd never even seen a Goblin before let alone done anything to warrant it.

"Very well, RACKSPUR!" the Goblins yell broke Harry out of his thoughts in time to see an even smaller Goblin rushing towards them, though how he could tell through the sheer number of the creatures rushing around he didn't know. He was right though as the creatures small clawed feet skidded to a halt on the marble floor.

"Yes sir!" It almost snapped to attention as it studiously ignored the human to deal with its superior.

"Take this human to room 306," the teller said before lifting its rubber stamp once more and bringing it down on the next parchment in the stack, already having dismissed the humans as beneath its dignity to have further dealings with.

"Come with me!" Rackspur snarled before turning on his heel and almost sprinting away. What followed was a rushed and thoroughly disorienting trip through a labyrinthine warren of corridors where Harry was sure he'd been led in circles at least twice and maybe more on their way to only god knew where. Ten minutes of rushing ended with Harry facing a rather imposing black wood door set in the marble wall. He was about to ask Rackspur what to do when he noticed that the Goblin hadn't stuck around once he'd been brought to the right place. The only reason they knew it was the right place was that emblazoned on the door in large golden figures was the number '306'.

"Well this is it Harry. Knock on the door."

Harry knocked on the wood, and then louder a few moments later when there was no response.

"Pray enter," a deep voice called from within the room. Lily would have shivered at the way the Goblin stressed the word 'pray' if she'd still had a body. It almost sounded like something a spider might say to the proverbial fly.

Fighting down his nerves Harry pushed the door open and walked into the spacious office that if he were any judge couldn't possibly fit in a corridor that was filled with such doors. The doors were spaced some five to ten metres apart while this room was closer to twenty metres square. The walls were lined in bookshelves almost completely except where the door they'd entered through and a large fire place on the opposite wall were. There were five shelves that were filled with literally thousands of large books almost two feet tall each and each bound in dark red leather. The centre of the room was occupied by a large antique style desk, not that it would be considered an antique in the magical world. It was easily eight feet across and four feet deep and seemed to be covered with scraps of parchment and open books. Sitting in a chair behind that desk sat the oldest looking Goblin Harry had ever seen, the wrinkled leathery skin was also the darkest he'd ever seen. Though he had no way to know if its colour was a matter of age, it didn't really matter. The obsidian eyes that were fixed upon him were as sharp as any he'd ever seen.

The ancient Goblin peered over his half moon glasses at the small boy.

"You have the look of your father…but such things can be counterfeited. Best we make sure before we continue…" The unnamed Goblin lowered himself out of the chair and waddled around to face the pair who had disturbed his busy schedule.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Come here child," it snapped. Harry being used to obeying that voice reacted instantly and scurried forward while the ghost of his mother trailed uncertainly behind. She certainly had plans and plenty of questions but she'd never been in this situation before and didn't know how to react. The first thing was to make sure that the Goblins were on their side or at least neutral and that meant not alienating them if they didn't have to.

"You hand boy," the Goblin held out his hand slightly and waited for Harry to place his hand near enough that he could grab it and twist it over. Harry gasped in surprise that the Goblin had been able to do that since no one had ever been able to move fast enough to do that to him, he gasped again when he noticed the other hand contained a small silver dagger. By the time he'd fully registered the dagger though it had already slashed his palm and blood was welling into his cupped palm. The knife was quickly replaced with a quill that was dipped into the small pool of blood and before Harry could blink the blood and the cut were gone. It never even registered that there had been no pain during the whole incident but it would at a later date.

Harry staggered slightly as the Goblin released him from its iron-like grip and watched in morbid fascination as the quill was raised to eye level where the creature examined it minutely before tapping it with a claw-like fingernail. A moment later a disturbingly toothy grin split the aged features.

"Good. Now sit," he said as he gestured at the seat around a low table. In a muggle home it would have been a coffee table though a little long and wide. Here it was more of a conference table and the businesslike chairs that were arranged around it reinforced that image. Harry looked at his mother and noted her smile, though it was a little strained and decided to do as directed. Sitting on the edge of his seat Harry watched as the Goblin moved to a chair opposite him and sat down.

"This…is a blood quill," it stated as it raised said quill waving it from side to side. Harry watched it carefully not quite sure what to do or make of this. The last time the Goblin had said something innocuous seeming he'd been stabbed.

"It has two uses, the first and most common is the binding of magical contracts. The second, and most useful aspect of this quill is the recording of your bloodline, whether completely or in part. Each book in this room represents a magical family, whether old, new, extant or long gone. You may remember your first visit here Mrs Potter. That day we began the book of Evans, though it is now deceased unless your son chooses to provide an heir to that line of course. The books are linked to this quill, and thus to the blood contained herein, and thus you are weighed and measured to discover who you are as your blood is compared to that in the books."

"Um.."

"Silence boy!" the Goblin hissed causing Harry to rear back in his chair, "Your identity is still in question and until such time as you are verified as my client you will keep your mouth closed. Now, this shouldn't take very long as it will only need to record one side of the bloodline. It will of course name your mother since she is magical, it will however stop recording that side of the family since your mothers parents were muggles," the creatures lips turned up in disgust at the mere thought, or maybe it was just trying to look dramatic. Harry wasn't sure but either way he didn't like the way it kept referring to his mother. The Goblin had no trouble ignoring the glare from the eight year old boy though and simply snapped its fingers causing a piece of parchment that covered the entire length and width of the table they were seated at.

"Let us begin," the quill was placed nib down against the parchment and then released. Contrary to what Harry believed the quill remained upright and then began to move as it wrote his name, though he never knew he had a middle name before. He hadn't even known that his name wasn't 'Freak' until he'd been registered for school at the age of six, so finding out he was Harry James Potter was a bit of a surprise. The quill then drew a line upwards from his name before writing James Everard Potter.

"And thus you are proved your fathers son…and your mothers son," it stated in a much more pleasant tone(which wasn't saying much) of voice as the quill continued to write his mothers name of Lily Evans Potter. The creatures eyes widened a moment as the quill continued moving. "Hmmm, interesting," it stated while taking a quick sideways look at the ghost he looked speculatively at her for a moment.

"We will return to this shortly. In the meantime Lord Potter would you care for some refreshments?" Seeing the startled look on the young boys face he smiled a no less disturbing smile at Harry, though it was meant to be kindly.

"Would you like some tea? Perhaps some food to tide you over until your evening meal?"

"Yes thankyou," Lily spoke for the first time since entering the room, "I don't know when last my son ate but it has been at least three hours and he is a growing boy."

"Indeed," the Goblin spoke before snapping his fingers sharply, an even smaller creature appeared with a slight popping sound.

"Master is calling Tiggie?"

"Yes. I require refreshments for myself and my guest," he finished the statement by gesturing towards Harry.

"Immediately Master!" as quickly as it appeared the creature disappeared and moments later a large tray laden with all kinds of beverages and hot and cold foods appeared on the table between them. Lily watched fascinated as the Goblin helped her son select a variety of foods before pouring the tea himself and directing Harry to try the tea several different ways until he found a way he liked. It was surprising to watch such an old Goblin personally serve a human since the fierce creatures would normally never deign to stoop to such a servile function. Pouring its own cup of tea it finally sat back in his chair and took an appreciative sip of his tea before placing the cup back on its saucer.

"Now, down to business. I am Golfarb and I am the administrator for the Potter accounts. The first order of business is an apology. I apologise for my abrupt demeanour before but you see you are not the first supposed scion of House Potter to appear before me to claim the Potter fortunes. You will however be the first of those to leave here," the smile that formed on Golfarbs face was sinister appearing and Harry was thankful he was actually who he said he was.

"How might Gringotts help you today Lord Potter?"

"Um, I don't know. My mum is the one who brought me here." Harry cast a quick look at his mother.

"Dowager Potter?"

"The last thing I remember before today was facing Voldemort in the upstairs bedroom of my home in Godrics Hollow. I assume I died then...my son was not yet two years of age. You can imagine my shock when I 'woke' up and found that my son had aged six and a half years and was living in the cupboard under my sisters stairs. I want to know how this came to pass? My sister was not even named in my husbands or my will. How come my son is still alive when Voldemort was alone with him? How come…" she trailed off as the Goblin raised a clawed hand.

"The tale is long and strange but I shall do my best to convey it to you. That night Voldemort attacked your son is steeped in mystery. To tell truth there is no one alive who knows for sure how it is that Lord Potter survived the killing curse. Some say your sacrifice spared him while others declare he had a bout of accidental magic when you, his mother, was killed that the Dark Lord was unprepared to defend against. Others say that you were working on ancient charms of protection that aided you son in his survival…" the Goblins raised eyebrow invited her to answer his speculations if she cared to.

"James and I weren't working on anything like that. The Fidelius was our last line of defense and we were assured we were completely safe. As to the other two ideas, well I can't answer that because I didn't survive the killing curse and didn't see anything after that."

"Indeed, so no ancient charms? Not that it matters I suppose. Shortly after Voldemorts demise Dumbledore dispatched his representative to investigate your home."

"Not Dumbledore himself?"

"No, Dumbledore didn't attend the scene himself, as I said he sent his representative."

"And just who did he send, some of the members of the Order I suppose…"

"Then you would suppose wrong Mrs Potter. He did not send a group at all. He sent one person, a Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts."

"He sent Hagrid? Alone? What was he thinking?"

Harry paused with a sandwich in his mouth as he regarded his mothers outburst with wide eyes. His mothers outburst didn't hold his attention for too long though as there was actual food in front of him and for once he could eat as much of it as he pleased.

"A question that I have asked many times with no answer that makes sense I'm afraid. We know that Mr Hagrid was unable to defend himself due to his expulsion from Hogwarts in 1947 and consequent snapping of his wand. Sirius Black was the second person on site that night but as per Dumbledore's orders he was denied custody of the child. In the meantime a slew of directives were issued for discussion by the Wizengamot. Between the time of your death and the time we here at Gringotts were notified of your death, a matter of half an hour, both recommendations had been passed by the Wizengamot. The first was to declare Sirius Black unfit to take care of a child on the grounds that he was single and there was the possibility that he had betrayed your family. The second was to suspend the Potter wills so that the appropriate guardian could take care of everything. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore had himself declared guardian as he had a plan to ensure Lord Potter was adequately protected."

"You're telling me that the Wizengamot was able to come to a consensus on such weighty matters in under half an hour?"

"Not only that but they had filled out all the requisite documentation, all two hundred pages of it. We find such alacrity in the Wizengamot to be highly suspicious."

"I wouldn't have thought that the Wizengamot could decide whether it was night or day in under twelve hours and then everyone would change sides just so they could continue."

Golfarb wasn't going to dispute her statement, he like many of the senior account managers had watched the proceedings of the Wizengamot and left shaking his head at their antics. Mind you, such disputes in the Goblin high council would lead to daggers or hand axes being drawn and used to good effect. The last Goblin left standing after the 'argument' was deemed to have been right. Not that there had been such an event in over three hundred years since Goblins tended to weigh the value of such an argument very carefully before they came to blows.

"I believe you have missed the point Dowager Potter, the fact that they acted with such alacrity where the paper work alone would take half a day to fill out correctly leads me to suspect that someone knew you were about to be attacked and failed to warn you or your husband. Added to other information we received before and after the incident we only have one suspect and it is I fear the most unlikely candidate from a wizards point of view."

"Albus Dumbledore…" Lily trailed off as she considered several things that had happened before she died. If she was capable she'd have shivered in reaction to the feeling of ice going down her spine. The problem is that death removes all illusions, no hormones affect the mind. The mind acts as if the person were an accomplished occlumens, or at least what an occlumens would aspire for. Total and absolute control of ones thoughts, fears, memories and desires. It allowed her mind to move much faster than if she'd been weighed down with her personal interpretation of events as filtered through her faulty memory. Things clicked into place at a frightening pace.

"Sirius would never have allowed this to happen, he would have fought it. From the expression on your face I take it he didn't…or wasn't able to…" she paused to think for a second, "What did Sirius do?"

"From what we have been able to piece together it seemed that after Sirius Black betrayed you and your family he went in search of your other close friends starting with Peter Pettigrew. When he found Mr Pettigrew, he was accused of his betrayal," Golfarb raised a clawed hand again to forestall any protestation, "Sirius Black then proceeded to attack Mr Pettigrew, an attack that killed him and twelve muggles in the resulting explosion. Almost instantly after that a team of aurors appeared and arrested Sirius Black. He was transported directly to Azkaban."

"Surely he was vindicated at his trial?"

"I fear there was no trial. I believe that he was an inconvenient loose end that needed to be removed lest whatever was planned unravelled before it even began. I have no idea what was planned, but I'm almost certain that it was to gain total control of 'The Boy Who Lived'. Even the circumstances were unusual in that the Wizengamot would have never intervened in such a case where a families last will and testament was concerned, lest they have the same thing done to them. It was a dangerous precedent to set where the purebloods are concerned. This action has not only set aside your families wills but has also destroyed the last member of the Black family."

"No!" Lily stood up abruptly, "I won't allow it! I won't!" she brought her fist down on the surface of the table.

Harry who'd finished with the assorted viands and for the first time he could remember actually had his fill was watching the woman who'd introduced herself as his mother as she raged. He couldn't even begin to figure out what the problem was but he wasn't going to get in her way. He watched as she jumped to her feet but for some reason he couldn't hear what she was saying, it must have had something to do with the loud ringing in his ears or maybe the fact that he felt so weak all of a sudden. Having his eyesight, which wasn't the best to start with go grey and fuzzy wasn't helping any either. It felt like he was being drawn, or dragged somewhere but he knew he wasn't moving. Then in a moment of clarity everything snapped back to normal, he could see his mother clearly could see what had happened just before the world went dark around him.

/ Hogwarts \

Four hundred and seventy miles as the crow flies, due north, lay an ancient castle. Once a place of war, a bastion of safety in an uncertain time, well, it was such still but that wasn't its main purpose. No more would armies crash against the walls seeking to destroy what was held safe within. Now it was considered the premier place of education in the entire magical realm, a jewel in the crown of the British magical community. It was not a place likely to be destroyed in a siege, far more likely would be the ravening hordes of children brought to learn in these hallowed halls bringing the castle down from the inside as they fought one prank war after another.

Albus snorted at his whimsy as he walked through the darkened halls. During the summer months it would still be light outside, it only being eight in the evening but now the hallways were both dark and cold. No sane child wandered these halls at this time of year, and those who did, did so only in direst need. That didn't stop the need for him to patrol his bailiwick for possible infractions of the rules. Truth be told it was a rather peaceful duty which he was quite happy to perform since it got him out of his accursed office and away from most of that paperwork that called his name accusingly. It took a few seconds in the quiet of the corridor to realize that that wasn't the sound of paperwork berating him from his distant office but the fact that the wards set to watch said office were going wild. Something was very wrong.

"Fawkes!" he said sharply as his blue eyes flashed. Whatever was happening would be dealt with. A ball of flame appeared above his head which he reached a hand into without hesitation or fear of being burnt and the corridor was once more empty, dark and cold.

To say he was surprised at the appearance of his office would be an understatement, when he arrived it was into a dark green cloud of smoke that reached from floor to ceiling and wall to wall and was thick enough that he could hardly see the bookshelves on the far side of the tower room. Through all of that there was the constant wailing of the wards.

A quick wave of his hands shut the siren down even as Fawkes let out a trill that he took to mean, 'Right I'll leave you to deal with this.' just before he flamed out of the room. Taking a breath he waved his wand in a tight circle while pulling it back towards him and moments later the smoke flowed towards him collecting in the palm of his off hand. It was hard to believe that all that smoke had compacted into a small cube no more than an eighth of an inch per side that nestled in his hand.

"Alright, would someone like to explain just what in tarnation is going on?"

"Don't look at me, you put me on this shelf facing the damn wall again. I couldn't tell you what happened even if I felt inclined to."

"Hat?"

"Oh stow it you old goat! Do you think it's a little boring staring at the same patch of stonework for an entire year? Do you care?"

"Why didn't you say something?"

"I have, but it's always, 'In a moment Hat,' or 'Sorry, I'm a little busy right now Hat.' I've watched this section of wall for four months, three days and sixteen hours. I could tell you how many minutes and seconds as well but I think you get the picture."

Albus raised his wand once more and waved it at the shelf lifting and twirling the hat in place so that the leathery features were once more facing the room. If he was expecting gratitude though he was doomed to disappointment.

"Well it's about time! It's not even like you had to get off your bony arse to do it either. Oh and by the way, I believe one of your monitoring devices was the cause of all this."

The headmaster took a quick look at the shelf of glittering silver paraphernalia he used to monitor his various duties and didn't see anything amiss.

"Did anyone see what happened?" he asked while directing his attention towards the numerous portraits of headmasters and mistresses of yesteryear. He was answered by a raucous deluge of sound as over a hundred portraits attempted to answer at once. Various calls of 'Sorry', 'In a different frame' or 'I was asleep' were the only answer he got.

"Silence! I think I get the gist, most of you know nothing about this. Could you keep that to yourselves? Only answer if you actually know what 'DID' happen!"

"I saw Albus," a painting of a man almost as old looking as the current headmaster stepped to the forefront of his golden frame and peered down at him.

"Well?"

"It started about an hour ago. One of those silver knick-knacks of yours gave a chirrup. Seen it before so didn't think anything of it. Then a couple of minutes before you arrived it emitted a piercing shriek that made me want to cover my ears before it began belching out all that smoke. Made it hard to see let me tell you, but then there was a rather large flash of light and something ricocheted off the ceiling. I think it came down behind your desk. Rather lucky really, if you'd been here I doubt you'd have been able to shield in time and it'd probably have needed the school nurse to sort out the damage to you."

"Yes thankyou Archimedes," he said absently to the last Malfoy to be headmaster as he gazed down at the idly spinning monitoring device. Knowing who it was linked to he took a quick glance at the second and third monitors and noted that while the one monitoring Harry was the same as it ever was even if it had relocated slightly the others were if anything stronger than they had been. Thinking that whatever happened must have strengthened the bonds of love between the Dursley's and Harry and thus strengthened the blood wards around number 4 Privet drive. He never realized that the wards were based on Petunia's love of her son and the miniscule blood connection that Harry and Dudley shared and not on her love for her nephew at all.

It would be quite a while before he ascertained the nature of his mistake, but, tomorrow would be whole new day. Dumbledore went to bed that night to sleep the sleep of the righteous and vindicated.

/ To be continued \

Authors notes:- I'd like to thank everyone who's added this story to their favourites, alerts and/or C2's. Also those of you who have reviewed this story, I've really enjoyed them and hope that all of the people who've read this story have enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

I've been reading Harry Potter and Harry Potter fanfiction for nearly five years now and I've seen just about every plot line, plot device and pairing out there and trust me some of the pairings have grossed me out they've been that strange. I hope that in the scheme of things I've bought something new to the table that people can enjoy.


	3. Chapter 3

Soul Mage

Chapter 3

Disclaimer:- I don't know about you, but I still don't own Harry Potter. It's shocking really, I go away thinking things might change and they haven't...not a bit...oh well, back to work.

A/N: I didn't mean to be gone this long but **it happens. So does life and sometimes you just lose that spark. I lost mine for a while and hope that I'm back. If you're still reading this then I thank you most humbly.

/ Gringotts \

Harry's eyes fluttered open and he surveyed the scene before him with a little regret. He wasn't sure where the table had gone but he missed the fact that there had been food on it and that he was now once more rather hungry. Checking with his mother he noted blearily that she was looking at her hand, incorporeal as it was and the expression on her face said she'd never seen this particular appendage before. She appeared a little scared of whatever that hand had done and that was confusing to Harry since he knew she was a ghost and as such couldn't touch anything. It didn't look like she was going to stop contemplating the dangers of owning that hand for a while either if he had to make a guess.

The elderly, or so he assumed due to the wrinkles, Goblin on the other hand kept switching from the scene his mother was making and something on the other side of the room. With a fair bit of effort Harry pulled his aching body upright and peered over the armrest and blinked. Oh well, he'd found the table and the remainder of the food, or at least what was left of it. It looked like something had shattered the table into a thousand pieces and then been thrown across the room. Massive splinters of wood had impacted the bookshelves and the books in the general area looked like they'd exploded on impact as sheets of loose parchment were liberally covering that side of the room interspersed with what remained of the heavy leather bindings.

The shelves themselves had been damaged by projectile table but that wasn't the full extent of it. Harry had seen a number of the kids in the neighbourhood playing with Frisbees tossing them back and forth and running around like lunatics trying to catch them or doing tricks with them when they could. He thought those platters must have been like some battle Frisbee they'd struck the shelves so hard that several of them had embedded themselves up to foot into the wood. He was grateful that no one, including himself had been between the table and the shelves when whatever had happened, happened. He'd swear he heard the elderly Goblin mutter something under his breath.

Golfarb was an extremely shocked Goblin, for one he knew that the Dowager Potter was linked to her son in some manner and not as most ghosts were to a building or the place where their unfinished business was so she shouldn't have been able to raise the kind of power necessary for her to become a poltergeist. It seemed that the Potter boy was much stronger than an average boy his age, possibly by a whole order of magnitude or as he was beginning to think, by several orders of magnitude. It would bear looking into at a latter point in time but they had much more important things to discuss before they got to that point. Such things as relative magical strength were extremely hard to quantify with any kind of accuracy, though it appeared that whatever Lily Potter had done had exceeded the boys limits for the moment. He knew that eventually the boy would grow into his magical strength and then…well they'd see. For the moment Golfarb was wondering if there was a middle ground that they could reach. That was something they'd have to look into soon if she really wanted some semblance of control of her child's destiny, even though he thought it unlikely that the people who were likely to argue against her custody of the child would allow such an ability to sway their intentions.

Looking back at the detritus of the explosion he called the house elf he'd hired from the pool or free elves that had wanted to join a household or gain a job in general. The small creatures, contrary to popular belief didn't need to be bonded to some wizard to continue living, but they liked the work. It was a matter of prestige, elves worked hard to show what they were capable of to prospective mates. On a whole it was much preferable than the ancient alternative where the male of the species would demonstrate that it could repair and clean up what ever damage a female elf was able to cause.

"Tiggie?"

"Master is calling Tiggie to clear the table?" the elf looked around and looked confused, "Someone is already clearing Tiggies table, and the table is going too! Tiggie is not happy…"

"Er, Tiggie?" Golfarb interrupted the tirade against whatever 'person' and she used the term loosely, had taken her work. The elf looked over and blushed as she realized her 'Master' had seen her as she ranted, then she followed the gnarled bony hand of the ancient Goblin and squeaked. Actually squeaked in excitement.

"Ooooh, Tiggie is going to has to clean this up!" Tiggie exclaimed excitedly as she moved towards the pile of wreckage. Before she started though she met the eyes of her master and he braced himself, she looked like she wanted to hug the stuffing out of him and his protesting muscles bore mute witness to the fact that it wouldn't be the first time or probably the last time either. Somehow she regained control of herself and turned back to the task at hand. Now that she hadn't actually attacked him he found the situation much more entertaining, enough in fact that he muttered under his breath.

"I'm much too old for this." Looking around once more he noted that the quill he'd set to work on the work table on the other side of the room had been undisturbed by the explosion and was still writing. He wondered for a moment what it had found out so far. That also could wait for a more opportune time, and the more time he left it the more information it would divulge so no great hurry. Harry on the other hand looked like he was almost done in, he was either quivering with fatigue, which would explain the sudden collapse a short time ago or he was repressing the need to ask a million questions so that he could understand what had just happened. Looking into the boys eyes he could tell that while the boy was indeed tired his need for answers was overriding that at the moment, so why wasn't he acting like a normal eight year old wizard and letting his mouth run away with him? Most wizarding parents had dealt with such minor embarrassing events on visits to Gringotts and shortly after that taught their children to be more circumspect in their inquisitiveness. Lord Potter on the other hand had a right to know what was happening and didn't look like he had any intention of opening his mouth to ask.

The elderly Goblin opened his mouth to begin the task of informing the young Lord just what had happened and why when the door to the office disintegrated in a hail of shrapnel that exploded inwards.

Harry whirled around in his chair at the sudden noise and watched as something that looked like the guard at the front door to the bank somersaulted through the wreckage letting out a piercing war cry. The creature barely staggered when it landed in all that heavy armour letting him know that it was much stronger than he'd at first thought. It had begun pulling its axe from a shoulder harness just as a red streak of light struck it in the centre of the chest and launched the bulky Goblin back through the now open portal. He watched with wide eyes as the placid seeming Goblin that he and his mother had been speaking to a little while ago advanced on the door with a furious expression on its face. The young boy had no idea what he was saying to whoever was out there but he was quite happy he wasn't on the receiving end. This had been one of the most exciting nights of his life and Goblins were just fascinating, but Harry had come to one conclusion, he wasn't overly fond of excitement if it was all like this.

Lily in the meantime was still staring at her hand as if it belonged to someone else and was wondering how it got on the end of her arm and totally missed the Goblins timidly peering down at their fallen comrade.

The elderly Goblin banker on the other hand wasn't distracted by anything as he yelled at them in Gobledegook.

"Warmaster Ragfhlain will be hearing of this! Blowing in my door! Somersaulting into a potentially dangerous situation! Screaming like something out of 'Xena the warrior princess' ™ ©" the Goblins, unlike their wizardly neighbours didn't dismiss muggles as useless and had found the invention of television to be greatly entertaining over the years, "And as for your response time! It's shocking! I'll be reporting you for dereliction if you don't have a good explanation!"

Three Hob-Goblins looked at the irate banker and quivered, they might have been bigger but truth be told the banker could probably level all three of them in moments if he put his mind to it. The threat of informing Warmaster Ragfhlain wasn't an idle threat either and Gurlant was going to rue his actions before the week was out.

Corluk found out he'd been nominated as team spokesman when he turned to his team-mates and realized they'd moved several paces away from the banker leaving him alone. Gulping he looked into the dark eyes of the Goblin and found no pity there as it waited for him to speak.

"We wuz knowing you wuz dealing wiv a wizard…"

"You knew there was wizard in the bank? And yet you were unprepared? Please explain," Golfarb finished coldly.

"Well we wuz talking to Erfgirt…" Corluk stopped again when Golfarb raised a hand.

"Erfgirt? Hmm, Erfgirt…..you mean the gate guard?"

"Yeah dat's 'im…" he stopped speaking again.

"What does Erfgirt have to do with this? I don't see him here. If he's on duty tonight where is he?"

"Erfgirt's off duty now. He's gone to Blethek's," he finished as if that explained everything.

"And…What's he doing in Blethek's?" Golfarb despite himself was getting curious.

"Er, he's gettin' drunk," Golfarb's eyebrows rose at that admission, there was no way a Hob-Goblin could earn enough in a month to get drunk at Blethek's, in fact there was only one way…resignedly he asked.

"Tell me the 'Tale of Erfgirt'," it was a formal request that had been with the Goblins since their time as hunter gatherers, a culture that they still embraced unlike certain species that chose to forget where they came from.

Corluk being back on solid ground socially since in this instance he was the Talemaster straightened to his full height. Meaning that he currently towered several feet over his superior as he had no fear of insulting the diminutive Goblin.

"Hear ye the 'Tale of Erfgirt….." Corluk trailed off once more as an uncomfortable looking Golfarb interrupted him. It was incredibly rude to interrupt a tale once begun but he wasn't doing this for the entertainment rather than the information he might gather.

"He composed his tale in formal bardic?"

"Er, yeah, he says it's the furst fing that ever happened to him worth telling a tale," Corluk answered as if that explained everything. In fact it pretty much did in Goblin society, and at least this tale might be interesting. It wouldn't be a tale of war or battle, and dear gods he hoped it wasn't a romantic tale, he'd have to feel sorry for the boy if he knew Erfgirt would be making calf eyes at the boy every time he entered the bank. Therefore, he surmised it must be a tale of humour.

"Please accept my apology for interrupting and continue."

"Er, yeah, um. I'll start again. Hear ye the 'Tale of Erfgirt the wise," Corluk paused for dramatic effect while Golfarb found his eyebrows rising once more, 'Erfgirt the Wise' indeed, "Twas late and the day had waned with the night claiming the sun from the sky when Erfgirt the Warrior did hear upon 'The Dread Portal' a knocking like the very heartbeat of Gringotts. Thud-thud, thud-thud and the sound did echo in our hallowed halls and through the hearts of all who heard it.

Let it be known that Erfgirt the Warrior was sore put upon even though the sound spoke to his soul, for surely none dare break the peace of Goblins in their hearth? His duty clear the intrepid warrior did advance upon said duty and seek out the nature of this intrusion and did open the eye of Gringotts to search out those that dared it.

And lo, no one did Erfgirt the Warrior see, no mortal beast, nor spirit of aether and mightily vexed was his warrior heart for he knew that somewhere some foul fiend was laughing at him. His patience sorely tested Erfgirt sought to return to his post awaiting the end of his onerous duty to his homeland when there once more came a mighty knock upon The Dread Portal and Erfgirt knew his patience had come to an end and stormed the portal and once more sought the creature that disturbed his peace and lo, once more there was nothing for him to see, and so spoke Erfgirt,

'Show thyself foul miscreant that I might deal with thee as I should!' and pause did he for some answer, and once more did Erfgirt neither see aught and he prepared to withdraw once more when he did spy the ghost of a human woman and spake once more did Erfgirt.

'Speak yon spirit that I might know thy purpose here," but mute stood the ghost of the unknown woman. And Erfgirt were about to speak once more when yon ghost did gesture as if in supplication and yet he knew and followed her gesture to its source. Erfgirt then knew glee for here was the miscreant that he sought," he paused for a moment since Golfarb couldn't help chuckling as he envisioned the scene from Erfgirt's point of view but made gestures for the Hob-Goblin to continue the tale.

"And show his displeasure did he unto this apparent human child to show him the wrath of Goblin kind. For assuredly any child of wizard-kind would flee such? And yet the child did not flee, he remained and gazed up at Erfgirt with uncommon eyes of jade. Something in those eyes spoke to Erfgirt and knew he did that he dealt with no ordinary wizard child. In mere moments he was proved right as the child spake unto him,

'Gral'nuk.' Erfgirt did pause for a moment but was not surprised as many of wizard kind knew of the formal greeting of Goblins but the child t'were not finished, 'Ath'tar gek Gibber, del'gen t'ver asser var.' sayeth he and Erfgirt was flummoxed for such to come from a mere child when no wizard in full growth would speak such to a warrior.

And yet the child were not yet finished, for once more he spake!

'Merak, des blenor gak, ng'var! Gal t'ver berik tane deis!' sayeth the child and lo…" Golfarb couldn't help himself he turned his head to regard the small boy who'd said that…alright he'd changed his mind he was interested in the tale for the entertainment value but the information was important too. He tuned back into what the tale teller was saying just as he was coming to the close of the tale, "…and so Erfgirt the Wise looked upon this small child who had no fear and knew that this could be no mere child for only one with great skill and courage would say such to a warrior and show no fear and decided to be polite to this apparent child." Corluk finished the tale with a flourish.

Golfarb stood stock still absorbing what he'd just been told, "I see…" looking over at the young lord he commented, "I rather think he'd need a step ladder." It was said casually, knowing that it would return to Erfgirt the Wise and become part of the tale before the evening was out regardless of what happened to these four Hob-Goblins.

"Another point Erfgirt might consider is that the child is bound to this ghost," he gestured to the incorporeal figure staring at her hand as she stood statue still, "It might further be noted that she is capable of poltergeist activity," again he gestured to the wreckage and happily busy house elf that was cleaning it up. The scene and his description of it raised a whistle of appreciation from one of the more knowledgeable Hob-Goblins. The others turned to the small child with wide eyes, they might not know what it really meant but they knew what a poltergeist could be capable of. Erfgirt would come out of this much more respected than he was when he began this day, he may even see a promotion.

That wouldn't help the people who should have been on security detail, they had been away from their posts long enough to hear the tale of Erfgirt and that would have repercussions.

"Er, sur, are we needed?"

"Hmmm? Oh, no, no, run along. I shall speak with the Warmaster tomorrow. Dwell long on your actions and inactions this night for tomorrow you shall be called to task," he dismissed the four guards before turning to face his two guests.

"Mrs Potter?" the aged Goblin ventured quietly to the statue still ghost. "Mrs Potter?"

"Mom?" Harry whispered as he saw his mother remain still. He'd never admit it, since such weakness had always been punished in the Dursley household but he was afraid and ashamed. Not for himself but for the fact that his fear was completely selfish. He didn't fear for his mother but for the fact that without her he may very well be returned to the hell from which he'd just been saved. He didn't think he could bear it, too be this close to freedom only to have to go back there if his mother was leaving him again...

He sighed in relief as the ghost blinked once and then again as she came back to herself. The sound of her sons voice calling her as nothing else could, that and the fear she could feel through their connection.

"What happened?" she asked shakily.

"I am not completely sure Dowager Potter…" Goldfarb hedged, "but if I were to hazard a guess I would say that you drew on your son's magic when you became angry."

"How is that…I didn't know that was possible," Lily changed the question because she had no reason to doubt the Goblin. He gained nothing by telling her an untruth and she could see the destruction wrought.

"I had not thought it so either. Normally such can only be found in very old magical buildings such as your Hogwarts. Gringotts guards a few of its oldest vaults with poltergeist and our curse breakers have much experience with them in the field."

"So I'm a poltergeist?"

"In your anger you drew on young Lord Potters magic. As he is barely eight years old at this time one wonders just how powerful he is, and how powerful he might yet become. Though to be honest, your drawing on his magic in such quantities concerns me for the strain it may place on his continued development. One hopes with a little experimentation you might find a happy medium between powerless ghost and the destructive potential of your sons' full magic."

"And how might I do that?"

"I fear I can not answer that Dowager Potter. Such as this has never before occurred in all our history. I might be able to offer advice and I'm sure Lord Ragnok will assist as much as is possible," Golfarb nearly faltered at that, it was dangerous to offer his lords assistance without his lords approval but he felt now was not a time to prevaricate or hedge their assistance with conditions.

Only the wizards believed that the so-called 'Lord Voldemort' was dead. The other sentient magical creatures knew that the spirit of the Dark Lord lived on and some even suspected how such had come to pass. The council of elders has advised caution in the past as Tom Marvolo Riddle rose in power fearing that he might turn his attentions of their people. Now though was a different time, the Dark Lord was weak and vulnerable. The time would come when Goblin and human might find common cause and that time might be now. Harry Potter was the hero of wizard-kind, and that was well known, maybe a little too well known considering the circumstances surrounding that night and the possible witnesses. What was not so well known was that he was also a hero to all other sentient creatures. Not even the merman were foolish enough to believe that Voldemort would not seek to attack them even if they remained neutral to his purported eventual goals of the subjugation of the wizarding world.

Golfarb mentally shook himself to dislodge the current flow of his thoughts, it wasn't conducive to sorting out the current situation. He had a ghost and a young lord of the wizarding world to deal with and he wasn't sure what to do about that. One thing he knew was that he didn't have the seniority to deal with the things that were happening here. He was the first point of contact for most families that wanted to know if they had inherited. Once they knew they had, or hadn't as the case may be, then he would pass the case on to another manager if they weren't one of the four accounts her personally managed. In this instance he was the manager, but the situation had spiralled beyond the scope of his duties.

Meeting the curious eyes of the ghostly female he said, "Dowager Potter, I find myself at the limits of the assistance that I may offer at this time. However, Lord Ragnok is not so constrained. With your permission I will seek audience with him."

Lily who'd been watching the elder goblin carefully while he thought was surprised took a moment to formulate an answer.

"Whatever you can do to help will be most appreciated sir," Lily answered.

Nodding resolutely Golfarb returned to his desk and pushed a button on a small box before speaking into it in Gobbledegook for a few moments. It didn't take long before the box squawked and someone answered him and he tried hard not to appear startled by the rapidity of the response.

"It seems that Lord Ragnok is rather anxious to meet you both, he has set aside his meetings for the afternoon. Please do not be alarmed," he said as he reached down to the floor and placing a claw to the stone. He then pulled the claw straight up leaving a white glowing line behind in the air, when he finally reached as high as he could he muttered a few words and the line, which had been slightly wavy snapped taught before slowly parting down the middle leaving a darkness between the two glowing lines.

"Please follow me," he said turning to the


End file.
